This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-396016, filed Dec. 26, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus of sheets, such as a classifying/sorting apparatus of sheets using accumulation means of a vaned wheel system, which classifies and sorts sheets such as paper money or checks, gift certificates, or other securities by type.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paper money or checks, gift certificates, other securities, or the like function as a key medium of social economic activities, and gather in large quantities in circulation. As a result a business for sorting these by a face value or type has developed. In order to automate this type of business or save energy, there has been provided an apparatus called a paper money classifying/sorting apparatus in which separate sheets of paper money are supplied, distinguished, and classified/accumulated by respective types (amounts of money), or formed in bundles each of 100 sheets.
This type of apparatus has a problem that the medium is flexible and it is therefore difficult to discharge a tip end of continuously fed paper money from a feeding path and accumulate the money in a laminate state. That is, the tip end of paper money collides against a rear end of another paper money or the tip end buckles by contact between paper money.
On the other hand, in a known accumulation apparatus of a vaned wheel system, a blade is rotated for about one or two blades with respect to about one sheet of continuously incoming paper money, and each sheet of paper money is introduced into a space formed in a gap among the blades. This is broadly utilized as a system in which collision between paper money does not occur or buckling does not occur by the contact of paper money.
That is, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, paper money P horizontally held/fed by a pair of belts (not shown) is sorted by a gate device (not shown), and guided to a vaned wheel 101. Usually, the paper money P is accumulated in a horizontal state as shown in FIG. 1. Even in this vaned wheel system, there is a small probability that a tip end of the paper money P collides against a tip end 102a of a blade 102 of the vaned wheel 101 as shown in FIG. 2. In this case, a problem is that the paper money P has the tip end thereof bent as shown by J, jumps out of the vaned wheel 101, and indicates an unstable behavior such as a jam.
Moreover, when the aforementioned phenomenon occurs, the paper money P buckles in the blade 102 of the vaned wheel 101. Furthermore, when two sets of vaned wheels are used as is usual, the paper money disadvantageously enters blades having different phases in the two vaned wheels.
Once the phenomenon occurs even at a low frequency, this causes a serious problem in business. The paper money P is contaminated/damaged, and remains in an irregular position, and there is disagreement in a counted number of sheets of paper money.
A state of FIG. 1 may constantly be set in order to prevent the tip end of the blade of the vaned wheel from colliding against the tip end of the paper money. Even in the conventional accumulation apparatus of the vaned wheel system, there is an example in which a taking-out device of the paper money is mechanically synchronized with rotation of the vaned wheel by a timing belt or the like, and the tip end of the paper money is devised not to collide against the tip end of the blade.
However, this system has not only a problem that a mechanism for mechanical synchronization is expensive and complicated, but also a problem that it is impossible to handle a dispersion of a pitch between the paper money during actual taking-out and subsequent feeding.
That is, when the paper money is taken out, a taking-out pitch fluctuates by a subtle dispersion of friction force among the paper money. When the paper money is fed by a feeding belt, a pitch or a skew fluctuates by a change of feeding speed caused by a change of a belt property by temperature, or irregular contact with respect to a guide plate.
Moreover, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 59-153756, there is disclosed a technique in which a number of rotations of the vaned wheel is set to be variable, a passing timing of the paper money is measured in the feeding path in the vicinity of the vaned wheel, a feeding deviation per sheet of paper money is fed back, and the timing is synchronized with that of the vaned wheel.
However, in this system, the phase of the blade has to be controlled for each sheet with an immediately previous signal, and a high-speed response property is demanded. There is a problem that the system becomes expensive and control stability is poor. That is, there is a demand for an inexpensive system in which synchronization can be established between the vaned wheel and the incoming paper money by a simple control.
An object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus of sheets in which a rotation phase of a vaned wheel can be controlled to have an optimum phase, so that a tip end of a sheet of paper does not easily collide against a tip end of a blade with use of accumulation means of a vaned wheel system.
According to the present invention, there is provided a processing apparatus of sheets, comprising:
supply section configured to supply the sheets;
feeding section configured to feed the sheets supplied by the supply section;
a vaned wheel which has a plurality of blades, and which rotates, thereby allowing the feed sheets to enter between the blades, and guides the sheets in a predetermined direction;
an accumulating section for accumulating the sheets guided by the vaned wheel;
at least two detection sections, disposed at a predetermined interval in a feeding direction in a middle portion of the feeding sections, for detecting the sheets fed by the feeding section;
measurement section configured to measure a passing time of the sheets fed by the feeding section in each detection section based on a detection result of each detection section;
calculation section configured to obtain a control amount of a rotation phase of the vaned wheel from a measurement result of the measurement section; and
control section configured to control the rotation phase of the vaned wheel in accordance with the control amount obtained by the calculation section.
Moreover, according to the present invention, there is provided a processing apparatus of sheets, comprising:
supply section configured to supply the sheets sheet by sheet;
feeding section configured to feed the sheets supplied by the supply section;
detection section configured to detect a type of the sheets from the sheets fed by the feeding section;
sorting section configured to sort the sheets fed by the feeding section in accordance with a detection result of the detection section;
a vaned wheel which has a plurality of blades arranged at a predetermined interval in a rotation direction, and which rotates, thereby allowing the sheets sorted by the sorting section to enter between the blades, and guides the sheets in a predetermined direction;
an accumulation section for accumulating the sheets guided by the vaned wheel;
at least two detection sections, disposed at a predetermined interval in a middle portion of the feeding section, for detecting the sheets fed by the feeding section;
measurement section configured to measure a tip-end passing time of the sheets fed by the feeding section in each detection section based on a detection result of the detection section;
calculation section configured to obtain a control amount of a rotation phase of the vaned wheel from a measurement result of the measurement section; and
control section configured to control the rotation phase of the vaned wheel in accordance with the control amount obtained by the calculation section.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.